The Bestselling E-books of 2012

Jaw-dropping numbers in digital sales

By Daisy Maryles
|

Mar 17, 2013

All the publishers that shared digital information were houses that rack up enough print sales to compete in the bestseller race. And while we estimate that we have more than 1,000 e-books with sales of 25,000+, we know this does not reflect all e-book sales in the book industry. Still, a look at this quantity underscores that the book business is quickly moving to digital. It would be safe to say that the lackluster performance in mass market has a lot to do with the fact that readers are enjoying the convenience of the electronic devices instead of the more traditional convenience of the paperback.

Also, it is clear where backlist sales have gone. Peruse the list and you will see double-digit numbers of titles for most of the bestselling veterans. Nora Roberts may be the most prolific in this area: she has 40 titles on the e-book list, adding up to about 3.2 million in total e-sales; James Patterson has 29 books on the list, with a total of more than 2.6 million; Janet Evanovich scores close to 1.8 million with 19 books.

In almost all instances, unit sales for print books are still ahead of e-book sales, but the gap is starting to narrow. The Fifty Shades combined e-book numbers are more than 15 million, about half of the print figures. The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks sold more than one million in mass market and 569,544 in digital. However, in e-books, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn outsold the print edition; more than 1 million copies to 900,000 print. At this point, Gone Girl is more the exception than the rule. But wait till next year.

In PW’s call for information we mistakenly asked for e-books that have sold more than 25,000 copies in 2012 without explaining that we were only collecting titles published in 2011 and 2012 or those titles that are still on PW’s weekly print charts. All the better! Most publishers complied with the written instructions and so we were inundated with long lists of e-book topsellers, and what a picture it paints of a changed sales landscape for book product. Looking at these lists provided some fascinating insights into the world of e-books so we changed the rules this time and honored our miscommunication.

Note: Titles submitted in confidence, for use only in ranking the titles on the list, have asterisks. Penguin USA and Random House Publishing Group were among those that shared sales numbers for ranking purposes only.

15 Million+ for All Three

*Fifty Shades of Grey: Book One. E.L. James. Vintage

*Fifty Shades Darker: Book Two. E.L. James. Vintage

*Fifty Shades Freed: Book Three. E.L. James. Vintage

One Million+

*Gone Girl: A Novel. Gillian Flynn. Crown

850,000+

*Fifty Shades Trilogy Bundle. E.L. James. Vintage

*Bared to You. Sylvia Day. Berkley

500,000+

*The Racketeer. John Grisham. Doubleday

*Reflected in You. Sylvia Day. Berkley

The Lucky One. Nicholas Sparks. Grand Central (569,544)

400,000+

*No Easy Day. Mark Owen. Dutton

*Defending Jacob. William Landay. Delacorte

*The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Book 1 of the Millennium Trilogy. Steig Larsson. Vintage

*A Game of Thrones. George R.R. Martin. Bantam

11/22/63: A Novel. Stephen King. Scribner (441,152)

The Innocent. David Baldacci. Grand Central (432,098)

*The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest: Book 3 of the Millennium Trilogy. Steig Larsson. Vintage

*The Last Boyfriend. Nora Roberts. Berkley

*The Help. Kathryn Stockett. Berkley

*A Dance with the Dragons. George R.R. Martin. Bantam

300,000+

*Unbroken. Laura Hillenbrand. Random House

*The Girl Who Played with Fire: Book 2 of the Millennium Trilogy. Steig Larsson. Vintage

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